In a scene disturbingly reminiscent of Mohamed Atta's cold fury at a ticket counter on September 11, 2001, one of the 11 Egyptian "students" who failed to show up for classes was apprehended Thursday morning after a heated argument at a ticket counter in Chicago:
(CBS) CHICAGO Chicago police on Thursday morning arrested one of the 11 Egyptian students who were wanted for failing to show up for an exchange program in Montana.
As CBS 2’s Derrick Blakley reports, it all started with some heated words at a ticket counter.
At 8 a.m., about four hours after heightened security restrictions went into effect following a foiled terror plot in Britain, a man at the Delta terminal at O’Hare International Airport tried to use a ticket to go to Bozeman, Montana, but his ticket was out of New York rather than Chicago, police Supt. Philip Cline said at a news conference.
A disturbance then ensued. “He was raising his voice for the level for the counter agent to call for the police officer to come over,” Cline said.
The man, Ahmed Mohamed Mohamed Abou El Ela, 22, was found to be one of the missing Egyptian students, Cline said.
So let's see -- we have Islamic roots (how about that double "Mohamed Mohamed" name?), an unexplained disappearance that violates at least the spirit if not the letter of U.S. immigration laws, excessive rage at a ticket counter, and coincidental timing that happens to correspond with the disruption of a terror plot to explode planes over the Atlantic.
Other than that, the man sounds totally harmless.
Speaking of cold fury, at least one of the missing Egyptian "students" still at large has a bit of the Mohammed Atta dead-eyed fury going, wouldn't you say? Take a look at number 11:
Meet Mohamed Ibrahim Fouaad El Shenawy, date of birth 08/12/1988.
Compare to the warm, sunny Mohamed Atta:
For that matter, missing students numbers 5 and 9 don't look particularly friendly either. (Number 5: Ahmed Refaat Saad El Moghazi El Laket, DOB 9/1/86. Number 9: Moustafa Wagdy Moustafa El Gafary, DOB 7/1/88.)
I suppose there's a chance that these guys are fine fellows with an entirely innocent explanation for their mass disappearance and just aren't photogenic, but I am not eager to bet my life on it, particularly in light of recent news. Are you?
Would you happily buckle up for a trans-Atlantic flight with still-at-large "students" numbers 4, 5, and 7 through 11 sitting next to you, near the cockpit, and taking turns assembling something in the bathroom?
Although there may be a completely innocent explanation for these men's disappearances, the more I think about it the less inclined I am to accept any excuses. You don't just fail to show up for classes in a foreign country that everyone knows is the target of terrorists from your same demographic and then ignore a nationwide manhunt for you and your fellow students, knowing full well that you are setting off multiple alarm bells in a post-9/11 world. You don't do that unless you bear the United States and the West ill will, or perhaps absolute indifference, which is closely aligned with hate.
That raises another disturbing question: Why are we still throwing our country wide open to young Arab men from abroad who profess a desire for higher education in America? Are there no institutions of higher learning in their own countries, or in any other country on earth that does not have a big Islamic terrorist bullseye painted on it?
If these 11 students had actually shown up for classes and delayed their disappearances for a few weeks into the school year or until school break, would anyone even have noticed?
Why on earth is the United States still allowing masses of young Arabic and Islamic men into the country to study? Are we really this desperate for students to fill our colleges and universities? Would it be too unreasonable to recognize that we are targets of a jihad by Islamic terrorists from abroad?
No, of course not every Arab or Muslim is a terrorist. Yet it is foolish to voluntarily open our nation's doors to the one demographic group with the highest probability of harboring a handful who will be more than happy to carry through on the repeated Islamic threats to destroy America. And all it takes is a handful.
If, in the name of political correctness, we must close the doors of our nation's colleges and universities to a broader segment of the international population than just young Arabic men, fine -- why can't we do that? Is preservation of our national security a minor optional value -- to be dispensed with whenever it seems to get in the way of what we normally want to do?
We are in a war -- remember? In wartime, we make sacrifices. War bonds. Victory gardens. Rationing, perhaps (although rationing is usually the worse possible way to allocate scare resources.) Maybe this wartime requires that a few of our thousands upon thousands of colleges be a little less full or even downright empty. Is that such a disaster? Is that an unthinkable horror?
If you want unthinkable horror, let's just keep doing what we're doing.
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Update 8/14/06: The last two missing Egyptian students have been arrested in Richmond, Virginia. Correct me if I'm wrong, but last time I checked Richmond, Virginia was nowhere near Bozeman, Montana.
Hilariously, the article reporting the apprehension of the last two "students" says, "None of the students is considered a terrorism risk."
Well, yeah -- not anymore.
But of course they were considered a "terrorism risk." Otherwise nobody would have bothered to look for them and it wouldn't have been a news story at all.
And until these men's motivation for disappearing and their activities during their absence are adequately explained, I'm not accepting the notion that there's nothing to be concerned about here.
There may be; there may not be. Let them explain themselves.
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